The lives of the Kittens
by OnePirateWolf96
Summary: A few months after A pet, the Little kittens are settling in their new homes. A Little look into how they're doing.


****So, it's been pretty much forever since I wrote the story A pet. I actually started writing this immediately after that, but got busy and forgot about it. Just found it a few days ago, and decided I might as well finish it. ****

****So, here you go! A little look into what happened to the kittens from A pet. It's been like, a couple of months since the little ones got new homes. Hope you like it!****

Living with kittens

Ace (With Lin, Elma and Kiba)

Ace was the one kitten that had stayed with Elma, Lin and Kiba. Tatsu had protested against it, still convinced they were out to replace him with cats. Eventually he had relented, and now the four of them were living with their two cats, Ace and its father, Cody. They were actually rather spoiled, with all three humans doting on them. They were allowed to sleep wherever they wanted, and walk around wherever they wanted. As a result, they could often be found lounging on top of a table or on the back of a chair or couch.

Whenever someone was sitting at a table doing paperwork, eating, drinking something or just sitting around, they were quick to demand being petted and scratched behind the ears. The humans soon got used to being laid on and scratching whichever cat ended up in their lap. This was not just limited to the people who lived there. Any, and all guests got the same treatment.

Each of the three had their own little ways of spoiling the cats.

Elma would sit down with them and stroke and scratch and brush them for hours at the time if there were no missions or anything else occupying her time. Cody loved it more than Ace, since the kitten wasn't always patient enough to sit still for too long.

Lin would give them special treats and when she was making dinner she would give them bits and pieces of the food. Tatsu protested against this, claiming this was proof they were replacing him with the cats.

"Linly never give treats to Tatsu, even if Tatsu need them more than furballs!"

"You don't __need __treats, Tatsu, you just want them. And the cats get them because they're nice and cute and don't bother me when I'm cooking."

"Linly think furballs more cute than Tatsu? __Meh-meh-meh!__"

Kiba liked to bring the cats with him whenever he was out in NLA running errands or doing some simpler and harmless missions. The cats were playful, but rather lazy, and didn't go very far on their own. They always did enjoy it when they got a ride to the residential district, where they could roll in the grass and climb the trees. Ace absolutely loved it, and could spend hours chasing whatever bugs or leaves he found. Once, he had started playing with a Wrothian's tail. Luckily, she hadn't gotten too upset about it, even when she ended up with a few hairs yanked out of the tip of her tail.

They liked going to the commercial district, where they always got some treats at the cafés and restaurants (Ace loved the pizza, while Cody preferred with hot dogs). They were not fond of the industrial district and the hangar, with big machines and deafening noises. If they knew they were going to either of those places, they preferred to stay somewhere else, and Kiba had to fetch them later. Usually they stayed with Hope, as they also got the chance to play with her kitten, Ace's sister Cora.

Ace and Cody lived just about the best lives two cats possibly could.

Leia (With Nagi and Vandham)

When Lin went to Nagi and Vandham's office to deliver a report from their latest mission, the first thing she noticed was a small, tiger-like cat sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, surrounded by a sea of shredded papers. She stared at it for a few moments before her attention went to Nagi, who appeared to be in the middle of his paperwork.

"Hey, what's up?" she greeted him, as Leia came up to her and demanded to be petted.

"Hello, Miss Koo," Nagi greeted her, not lifting his eyes from his paperwork. "I take it you're here with more work for me?"

"Kind of. Just a mission report, really," she told him, dropping the report on the middle of his desk. "Why do you have Leia here?" she finally asked what she had been wondering since she stepped in the room.

"Jack brought her," was the short answer. Nagi finally looked up from his paperwork and at Lin and Leia. "Then he left her alone here while he went to get coffee, and she decided it would be a good idea to shred all paper she could get her paws on. She seems to like paperwork about as much as he does. And then Chausson decided I should help Jack redo all the paperwork she destroyed, even though most of it is Jack's, and he's the one who brought Leia here to begin with."

"That's a lot of paperwork..." Lin stared at the stack of papers on Nagi's desk. If the secretary was standing next to it, it would probably reach his shoulder. And Nagi was not a short man. Vandham's desk had an equally high stack of paper, and the man himself was completely absent. "Why do you have to do the Commander's paperwork when he brought Leia and left her alone with it? And where is he off to now, anyway?" She decided to make herself comfortable by sitting down on the extra chair in front of the desk.

"He's off getting dinner," Nagi chose to answer the second question first. "And the amount of paperwork is because Jack has been lazy and not taken it to be properly filed in the archives." He smiled slightly before continuing. "And I have to help because according to Chausson I should have been keeping an eye out, and apparently that makes this partially my fault."

"Keep an eye on the Commander or the cat?" Lin had to ask, noticing he hadn't actually specified that point. This time Nagi actually smiled.

"Both, I believe. I should have known he would bring Leia here just to see if she would actually eat the paperwork." While he was talking, Leia hopped up on his desk and rubbed herself against his hand, hoping for scratches. Nagi, apparently without really thinking about it, stroke his hand over her back, scratching her behind the ears every now and then. "Speaking of people not here, where's the rest of your team, and Tatsu?"

"Tatsu's mom and siblings are visiting NLA, so he's spending some time with them." Lin made herself comfortable in her chair, going as far as swinging her feet up on Nagi's desk. Leia moved over and climbed up on her legs, making herself comfortable also. "Kiba is helping Hope with something, and Elma is visiting Carlos and his team. Something about helping them with a mission report. But I think she also wanted to check up on Willy."

"Isn't Willy one of those cats you were in the possession of a few months ago?" Nagi asked, hoping he got it right.

"And we had to give away four of the five of, yes." Lin confirmed, now picking up Leia into her lap, continuing to pet her. "I think Elma wants to check up on them, to make sure they're doing okay." She lifted Leia off her and set her back on the desk. Hopping up, she straightened herself a bit. "Well, I'd better get going now. Got some things to check on in the Hangar. Have fun with the paperwork!"

Cora (With Hope)

"You know, you don't really have to help me with this, Kiba. I could do it easily on my own."

Kiba had been helping Hope with planting and caring for the flowers around the park in the residential district (turned out Orpheans really liked flowers from earth, and many of NLA's flowers of said type had fallen victim to their appetite). He looked over at her from where he was just finishing up with some sunflowers.

"I know," he simply said. "But I want to. And I think Ace and Cora are enjoying themselves."

Said kittens were playing around on the grass and in the jungle of flowers. The silver tabby and the cream-coloured kitten were apparently having the time of their lives.

"Yes," Hope agreed, smiling at the kittens, who both at that moment looked over at the humans. "Cody seems to enjoy himself as well." Cody was watching them from where he was lazily sprawled in the sunlight. He had climbed up on a tree branch, to avoid the kittens dragging him into their playing.

"He's pretty lazy," Kiba noted. "All he ever does is sleep, even at home." That, and eat, of course. The only time he really moved was when he was hungry and when he wanted scratches from someone.

"I think that's pretty normal for cats," Hope smiled. "Cora is pretty much the same at home, so maybe it's also genetic, since they're all related."

"Maybe," Kiba agreed, looking around where they were planting things. "Was it roses or tulips you wanted over here?" He pointed to a spot next to a tree with some bluebells next to it.

"Roses," she answered, with only a glance at the spot. "I thought the red and the blue would go nicely together." She then looked over at the kittens. "Don't you agree, Cora?"

"Meow," came the answer as Cora looked over at Hope, and tilted her head to the side, before hopping up and going back to playing with Ace.

"You often ask her for advice?" Kiba asked with a small smile, while getting up to get the flowers. The idea of Hope bringing the little kitten with her and asking her what colours went well together was a quite interesting one.

"Not really," Hope finally turned to look at him, smiling. He didn't keep eye-contact for long, picking up two rose-plants from the ones available. "But she's a good listener. And good company."

"At least she doesn't bother you, eh?" Kiba asked, thinking about one time when Lin had tried growing some plants to get some really fresh stuff for her cooking. It had seemed like a good idea at first, but she had given up a few days later, when Ace had eaten the plants. He compared the two roses he was holding, contemplating which one looked better.

"Yes, she's quite well-behaved," Hope petted the kitten, who apparently noticed they were talking about her, and had walked up to Hope while she was talking. "I honestly wasn't expecting that from a cat. The ones I've had before have always been more independent loners. Not really ones for company."

"Well, it's a good thing she's a social one, then." Kiba answered. He put the other rose back on the ground, having decided the other one looked just a bit nicer.

"Yes," Hope smiled at Cora, before turning back to Kiba. "Now bring that over here, so we can get going, and make this park the best it had ever looked!"

Toby (With Doug)

"Hey, Doug! How are things going?" Lin yelled across the hangar as soon as she noticed the man working on a skell, making a few heads turn. They quickly went back to minding their own business when they noticed it was just Lin. She wasted no time making her way over to him as he hit his head standing up too quickly while underneath the skell's arm. He was rubbing the tender spot at the back of his head when she reached him.

"Hey there, Lin!" He greeted her with a smile, despite that. "Don't you know better than startling a man like that?" He moved away from the skell, as if making sure he wouldn't hit himself again.

"Nope!" She cheerfully smiled at him. "I didn't know you were scared that easily."

"I wasn't scared!" Doug defended himself. "I was just startled, with you showing up out of nowhere like that!"

"What do you mean out of nowhere? Did you forget we were supposed to meet today? You and Alexa promised to help me test that new idea for a skell function." Lin told him.

"Oh, yeah, right." Doug remembered. "Sorry, must've lost track of time."

Lin sighed, crossing her arms and shaking her head. It was so like Doug to forget himself working on the skells. Not that she really was any different. Even Alexa was like that. But, anyway... "So, you coming or not?"

"Yeah, right." Doug fumbled around a few moments to gather all his things. "Oh, there's one thing I wanna show you before we go."

"What is it? Does it have to do with your skell? Did you break it again?" Lin asked him, a bit curious, but really hoping he hadn't broken his skell again.

"Well, it's my skell," Doug started explaining, then, at Lin's glare quickly continued with "but it's not broken! Alexa helped me make a few modifications, and I thought you'd like to see it."

"All right, let's see it then!" As long as nothing was broken, and the new "modifications" were not something that would make something break, it could actually be pretty interesting.

They left the skell Doug had been working on to make their way down the hangar to where he kept his own skell parked when he was not out. It was nicely out of the way so there wouldn't be any risk of anything bumping into it or otherwise damaging it. Lin looked at it carefully, not noticing any outward changes since she last saw it, yesterday.

"So, what's the modification?" she asked, peering around the skell, trying to figure out what was different.

"This!" Doug said, making his way to the piloting seat, opening up the skell. Next to the seat was a newly added compartment with a small window. Inside was a small cat with grey fur. "I didn't want to leave Toby all alone while I'm out, so I figured out a way to keep him with me. And he loves it a lot, he barely leaves it all day."

"Are you sure it's safe?" Lin had to ask, even though she had to admit it was a pretty good idea. And it was so typical of Doug to worry about a kitten being alone and sad, and find out a way to take it with him to work.

"Yeah, it is," Doug assured her. "That's why I asked Alexa to help me. She sure knows how to make things safe, especially skells."

"Yeah, true," Lin had to admit. If there was one thing Alexa loved, it was skells, and there was no way she would make anything other than the best when it came to them. "And he's really comfortable there?" The small compartment didn't look like anything interesting from the outside.

"Yeah, look." Doug opened up the door to the compartment, revealing the small cat, peacefully sleeping. "Hey there, Toby," he gently stroke the cat's head to wake it. Soon it started purring and half-opened its eyes to look at the humans in front of it. After blinking a few times, it yawned loudly, before curling up and going back to sleep.

"Well, he seems to be fine," Lin concluded, watching the sleeping, purring, ball of fluff. There was a soft carpeting on the floor of the compartment, as well as padding on the walls. In the back there was a bowl with water, and another one with food.

"Yep. Told you he loves it." Doug sounded very proud. "But the padding was Alexa's idea. She said cats like comfortable sleeping places."

"Yeah, they sure do." Lin looked at the sleeping Toby for a little longer, before turning back to Doug. "So, you ready to go?"

Willy (With Marina the OC)

Elma and Kiba had agreed to meet up for lunch after finishing their business for the day. They had met up at the Commercial District, where they had decided where they would go to eat. Eventually they had decided on a newly opened, small restaurant, advertising good, homey, homemade food. Ace was tagging along, as usual, riding in Kiba's hood, looking around curiously.

It took a little while to get to the restaurant, since people kept asking if they could pet him. And they of course couldn't say no.

"Finally, we're here," Kiba said, relieved they were finally at the restaurant, as he was starting to get pretty hungry by now. Ace meowed in his ear, as if agreeing with him.

"Yes, it certainly took some time to get here," Elma said, looking around the restaurant curiously. "Then again, that should be expected when we bring Ace along." She smiled.

"Hey! Kiba and Elma!" Someone from the restaurant called out to them. When they turned around they noticed one of the women from Carlos' team, Marina. She was waving at them from the table she was sitting at. In her arms, she was holding a small black-and-white kitten.

"Hey, Marina," Elma greeted her while Kiba simply waved. "How are you doing?" She asked as they made their way over to her.

As soon as they reached the table, Ace recognized his sibling and crawled out from Kiba's hood, hopping down on the table and meowing at the other kitten. At the same time, the kitten in Marina's arms hopped down on the table to greet him, both of them purring happily.

"I thought it would be nice to eat here today, and I brought Willy along. He usually gets some good treats when we come here, and he really likes it," Marina explained to them.

"Do you come here often?" Elma asked, curious.

"Well, sometimes. Usually when I have a day off," Marina explained. "I usually end up Willy along, too." She laughed a bit and stroked said cat over the head and back. "It's like he can tell when I plan on coming here and waits for me at the door, ready to leave."

"Yeah, cats are pretty great," Kiba said, smiling. "Ace does the same when we're going anywhere, pretty much. But never when we're going to anyplace where there's water."

"Yes, Carlos always says cats are surprisingly smart animals," Marina said, twirling some of her red hair between her fingers.

"Speaking of Carlos, how's your team doing?" Elma asked, hoping nothing had happened to them. It seemed like only a few days ago when they rescued the group from the Ganglion in Oblivia.

"Oh, they're all fine. I think Spencer is rethinking his career, though. He seems to have figured that fighting maybe isn't quite his thing."

"Oh, well it's good he's figuring out what he wants to do," Elma answered. "Fighting isn't for everyone." She thought about if for a moment before continuing. "Do you think he'd like to help with recreating animals? He had a relative who was good with animals, didn't he?"

"Yes," Marina suddenly remembered. "His sister, Jessica, volunteered at an animal shelter back on earth. He helped her with the animals a lot, and it seems like he really enjoyed it." She smiled happily at them. "I'll have to remind him when I see him. I can't believe I didn't remember! That's why he's so good with Willy!"

"Meow?" Willy sounded at hearing his own name. Both kittens paused in their playing to look at the humans.

"Yeah, you guys are really great," Kiba laughed, petting them both.

The end


End file.
